Ports and Harbours

Every type of Harbour Authority exists in the Solent. Portsmouth is a naval harbour with a Queens Harbourmaster; Cowes, Yarmouth and Lymington are Trust Ports, Chichester has its own statutes, but is virtually a Trust Port, Hamble and Keyhaven are local authority ports operated by the County Council, Southampton is a statutory port owned and operated by a private company. Technically, Newtown is not a statutory harbour, but is managed by National Trust, and Beaulieu is also private, but has some powers granted in the mists of history.

Portsmouth and Southampton are principally commercial ports. Chichester relies wholly on leisure activity, while Cowes Lymington and Yarmouth (and Wootton Creek) have some income from ferry services.

The principal duty of a port authority is the maintenance of safe navigation. They maintain channel depths (usually by dredging), direct traffic if necessary, apply byelaws relating to speed and pollution, and manage mooring and anchoring. In the event of an accident they are obliged to manage the accident response unless the incident is so major that the MCA (Coastguard) take over control of the response as representatives of the Secretary of State.

Ports can prosecute offenders, and will almost invariably do so in major pollution cases. At present the costs of bringing prosecutions and the difficulties of identification of vessels and their operators make it extremely difficult to bring successful prosecutions of leisure craft for speeding and nuisance. Some suggest that registration of craft would assist this, but that is a major step with all kinds of unwanted consequences.

The Solent ports all operate byelaws. There is little consistency between them, but this may simply reflect local circumstances which vary greatly. In general, the ports have been managed for nearly a century, and the regulations, which were aimed mainly at navigational safety, serendipitously provide environmental protection. It is improbable that major changes are needed.

Note that Newtown and Ryde are not harbour authorities!